A change of food is of course desirable. Pointers, Setters, Retrievers, Beagles, Terriers, etc., etc., may have dry dog-biscuits—or soaked if preferred—given to them in a morning, and soaked stale bread—with water squeezed out—mixed with cut-up meat for the evening meal.
Boiled (or raw) paunches make a splendid food for dogs, and have great nutritive value. Boiled rice, flour, and various other meals are suitable, only must have a proportionable amount of flesh added to them.
Many sportsmen believe that flesh destroys a gundog's scenting power, and others that it makes thin dogs hard-mouthed. The author cannot share this belief. For the satisfactory performance of work, a dog must be allowed flesh, and shortness of this—a dog's natural diet—is one of the chief causes of so many dogs breaking out in skin eruptions.
In addition to good food, regularly given in suitable quantities, it is necessary to see that the dogs have a plentiful supply of pure water, but it is not a good plan to give water immediately after feeding.
Another matter, in connection with feeding, that gamekeepers, etc., will do well to bear in mind, is to avoid feeding a dog on the entrails, etc., of rabbits and hares—a fruitful source of worms.
Conditioning Dogs
First of all, let us ask the apparently simple question, what is meant by "Condition?"
Our answer is: "The highest standard of excellence for a given purpose."
To the uninitiated, it may seem a very simple matter—only a question of plenty of food—to get a dog into condition—or, we ought to say, with a good layer of flesh upon his ribs.
But the huntsman, sportsman, and exhibitor know different to this.